By Santokh Singh

I DO empathise with Mr Chong.

I was once a teacher, a civil servant - one who was not shy to raise issues and offer some possible solutions.

From the manner in which track and field events were conducted to whether top Express schools should have their own soccer tournaments, I had put up my ideas.

But, slowly but surely, I came to realise that they were not getting anywhere.

Either the bosses were not forwarding them or they were pushed aside at the Ministry by some clerical staff member or mid-level manager.

And I learnt that the best way to get an idea turned into an action plan was by working on it from the outside, not within the civil service.

For some time, while I was in the civil service, I had argued that the manner in which the then Extra Curricular Activities (now Co-curricular Activities) points were awarded were not fair to student-sportsmen, when compared with those from the uniformed groups.

The sportsmen trained just as, if not, harder than their peers in the other ECAs. They spent just as much, if not more, time than their schoolmates.

But they were not equally rewarded.

I had raised the issue on numerous occasions with the relevant authorities but did not get a response.

It was one of the first issues I wrote about when I joined The Straits Times as a sports journalist.

A call within hours

Within hours of the article's publication, I received a call from the Education Ministry.

They questioned the veracity of my report, checked with the facts and said that they would conduct their own study.

Within two months, they had arrived at the same conclusions that I had made public.

And within that same year, they announced a change in the ECA grading system.

Student-sportsmen would be more fairly treated from then on, at least when compared with their peers from the uniformed groups.

While the congratulations poured in from friends in the service, for me it was a hollow victory. For many of my own students had already graduated under the old scheme and lost out.

If only the civil service had listened to its own servant earlier.

This article was first published in The New Paper on Sept 11, 2008.